Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	brightness_n	call_v	great_a	15	3	2.0890	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79466	Hell, with the everlasting torments thereof asserted. Shewing 1. Quod sit, that there is such a place. 2. Quid sit, what this place is. 3. Ubi sit, where it is. Being diametrically opposite to a late pamphlet, intituled, The foundation and pillars of Hell discovered, searched, shaken, and removed. For the glory of God, both in his mercy and justice, the comfort of all poor believing souls, and the terrour of all wicked and ungodly wretches. Semper meditare Gehennam. / By Nich. Chevvney, M.A.	Chewney, Nicholas, 1609 or 10-1685.	1660 (1660)	Wing C3805; Thomason E1802_2; ESTC R209913	50,666	128

instructions who can help it such bad consequences are not the legitimate Children of Gods sacred Truth but the bastards of mans own corruption to whom they are to be brought and by whom to be fathered for their maintenance Sure I am if we take a right course with it there is good use to be made of it 1. The glory and comfort of eternal life doth more and the more manifestly appear hereby This is a significant and delightful demonstration which one contrary gives to another when they are diametrically opposed The day would not seem half so clear if the departing Sun should not leave night to follow it The foil adds grace to the Jewel It no less then glorifies Learning that the malicious Tongue of ignorance doth bark at it He knows the benefit of heat that hath felt the sharpness of a freezing cold If there were no sickness to trouble us health it self would not be precious to us Even their opposition is an Exposition of their nature The consideration of the deformity and darkness of Hell doth add a greater and more glorious lustre to the beauty and brightness of Heaven and those heavenly Mansions which the merits of Jesus have purchased for the righteous 2. This Doctrine for so Alstedius calls it is very necessary for the Godly that they may be moved in the serious consideration thereof to acknowledge with the greater affection the mercy of God in Jesus Christ by which they are freed from so great a misery as this of eternal damnation which we affirm though Anonymus do deny it and by that if there were nothing else to do it Ex ungue leonem discovers what he is that Christ our surety in our place and stead did suffer for us And that this is an undoubted truth at which none but the Children of darkness can take exception that which followeth will I hope sufficiently testifie First That Prophetical speech of David Psal 88.4 5. c. where are fully and emphatically described the grievous torments and infernal dolours which Christ our Saour sustained in the time of his passion being such as no Saint was able to undergo And that the Psalmist doth there prophesie of the sufferings of Christ the circumstances of that Psalm do evidently declare Secondly The Type and Figure thereof in the person of David who by the instigation of wicked men the Sons of Belial was exceedingly troubled and of which in many of his Psalms he sadly complained manifestly prefigured the future sufferings of the Lord Jesus in especial Psalm 18.6 The sorrows of Hell compassed me about and the snares of death prevented me compared with that of Psalm 116.3 where we have the like expressions Thirdly The description it self of the passion of Christ what horrible anxiety he suffered in his Soul what consternation and contristation in regard of those infernal torments with which he violently conflicted even to this death for the sinnes of all the Elect and the wrath of God due unto them for the same which lay so hard upon him that his sweat was great drops of blood and an Angel was sent to comfort him Mat. 26.36 Luk. 22.43 Fourthly The surrogation of Christ in our place forasmuch as he suffered instead of all the faithful and all those things which should have been sustained by us he in our place sustained for us as Mat. 20.28 The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many Ioh. 11.51 52. speaking concerning the prophesie of Caiaphas he foretold that Jesus should die for that Nation and not for that Nation only but that also he should gather together into one all the Sons and Daughters of God that were scattered abroad 1 Tim. 2.6 Also 1 Pet. 3.18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust But among all those things which he suffered for us the chief was the infernal death which by reason of our transgression was due unto us without which all his sufferings had been to no purpose And to this our Doctrine tends what ever wicked men think of it or speak against it and therefore confidently and comfortably affirm that Christ our Mediator in our stead hath undergone this also for us Fifthly The susception and taking of our sin which was by imputation laid upon him seeing he hath taken our sinnes upon himself and born them for us as plainly appears by that place of Isai 53.6 and 2 Cor. 5.21 It is necessary also that he bear the punishment of the same the principal part whereof is this infernal death and condemnation Deut. 27.26 6ly The execration which he underwent for he was made a curse for us who were under the curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 Concerning which I have already declared my self else where sith then this Curse doth inferre that we were liable to eternal death and condemnation from which Christ becoming a curse for us did graciously deliver us It is manifest that the death of Christ was different from the death of any of all Saints whatsoever who in all their sufferings were neither made sinne nor a curse nor were they forsaken of God nor tasted the cup of his indignation but were onely fatherly chastised by him nor did they colluct or wrastle with Hell and the powers of darknese unless it were as with Enemies already foiled whom Christ by his death had vanquished and subdued Lastly The confession of Crellius and other of the Socinian brood to whom Anonymus though he vvish vvell must necessarily subscribe as not being vvorthy to carry their Books after them vvho saith that Christ suffered death instar maledicti à Deo let him crack that Nut the effect vvhereof must have been our punishment unto all eternity We had spoken to this purpose before and had then done vvith this Argument but that Anonymus vvould needs make the vvorld believe that vve are they that labour to over-flow the sufferings of Christ when indeed we are so far from overthrowing them and the sufficiency thereof by leaving any part thereof unperformed by him or to be compleated by us that we magnifie them rather and his love to us that undergoing such misery for us we might thereby be eternally freed from the same This is a truth against which the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail much less the slight assaults of such poor and feeble undertakers as Anonymus who while he chargeth us with undervaluing the sufferings of Christ doth himself by a Socinian trick that he hath undervalue the person of Christ by that corrupt gloss which he puts upon the words of S. Paul Rom. 5.19 By the obedience of one many are made righteous It is not saith he by the obedience of God nor by the obedience of God-man but by the obedience of one man vvhich vvord man is not expressed in that verse though it be vvith note of distinction or opposition in some verses before are many made righteous 'T is true not by the

a period to their sufferings The gulph is so deep there is no getting out Ex inferno nulla redemptio Therefore it is called Infernus ab inferendo of casting in for the wicked are so cast in that they can never be able to get forth As no Habeas Corpus from death so no Habeas animam out of Hell That rich Man Luk. 16. solicited for his Brethren why did he not beg his own deliverance who was able to have taught them by his own sad and woful experience O he saw Ingentem hiatum a vast interposed Gulf. He must let that alone and alone for ever Those laments must needs be comfortless which afford to the distressed no hope of any kind of consolation neither the comfort of mitigation for Luk. 16.24 all hope of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relief is there denied even to a drop of water to cool the tongue of the tormented Nor the comfort of liberation no deliverance no not at the last for ver 26. ●he is given to understand by reason of the great partition their case is such Ut non possunt they cannot for ever look for any freedom thence but must there remain in torments everlastingly So neither the comfort of relief in or delivery from the miseries of this place Not the poor comfort which in all the calamities of this life doth still stick by us and never leave us Dabit deus his quoque finem an end will come Here an end will never come which never is never deeply enough imprinted in us nor seriously enough considered by us That this now shall be now still and never have an end and that Cruciaris Luk. 16.25 be Cruciaris for ever and never declined into a preter-tense is an exaltation of this sad contemplation and the greatest aggravation of their unhappiness Now because it is the main design of Anonymus to overthrow if it were possible this truth I shall therefore fortifie it with the greater strength and prove by divers I hope considerable arguments that all Reprobates shall be tormented with the Devil and his Angels and that everlastingly never admitting either case or end 1. The Scriptures setting forth the nature of these torments by divers emphatical expressions do evidently declare the same as 1. per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most exquisite pains such for the suddennese and sharpness as the pains of women travelling in Child-birth Luk. 16.24 26. 2. per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most miserable tortures such as are inflicted upon the most notorious malefactors Apo 20.10 3. per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most dangerous and deadly plagues Apo. 22.18 Whosoever then are liable to and reserved for such pains tortures and plagues shall never be annihilated but for ever remain in and under the same But the first is true of the wicked and therefore the latter 2. The continued succession or rather the perpetual continuation of Hell torments is notably expressed Apo. 14.11 which is the amplification of the former judgement from the eternity thereof shewing that it is such as shall be both easeless and endless 1. He saies that the smoke of their torment ascended up for ever and ever not to speak properly that there is any smoke in Hell because smoke proceeds from the resolution of the matter which by fire is consumed Now if there were any such thing in Hell it were probable that the fire would sometimes be extinguished but smoke here is 1. Either a Metonymie of the sign for the thing signified as smok is a sure sign that there is fire and so the sense is that the fire wherein they are tormented shall remain for ever Or 2. That with this fire wherein they are tormented is perpetual smoke and darkness so that they have not so much comfort therein as a little light may afford and this smoke shall be a torment to them if not equal with yet not much inferior to the fire it self and therefore it is called the smoke of their torment that is the smoke that troubles and torments them And indeed it is but just for as the smoke of their unrepented sinnes ascended first by which God was sorely displeased and exceedingly provoked to take vengeance on them so that the smoke of their eternal torment should ascend next to shew that God had now given them smoke for smoke Apoc. 20.10 And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Here is set before us the full and final destruction of Satan himself which may be called his second imprisonment for ever in that infernal pit where likewise the beast and false Prophet are and shall be tormented day and night which the very next words expound saying for ever and ever according to the like usual phrase Chap. 7.15 14.11 For there is no vicissitude of day and night in eternity nor is there any day in Hell but eternal night This kind of expression therefore is used to declare that those torments which the Devils and the damned do there suffer shall be without any cessation or intermission 3. The grace of repentance for sins past and amendment of life for the time to come is eternally denyed to them As the Tree falls so it lies Mat. 25.10 The door shall be shut the gate of mercy by which they might have entered shall for ever be shut against them These Chains can never be broken were they of Cords of wreathed Trees of Iron they might be burst asunder but the chains of vengeance never besides a great gulph doth interpose by which they are for ever disabled to pass unto the habitations of the blessed Now they to whom Grace is for ever denyed here and glory hereafter must necessarily be detained in misery unto all eternity The first is true of all Reprobates and impenitent wretches and therefore the latter 4. That infernal Dungeon hath no back doors no egress at all Mat 5.28 Verily I say unto thee thou shalt not come forth thence till thou hast paid the utmost farthing which can never be done unto all Eternity why then those that are fast bound in Chains in such a place out of which there is no getting must needs abide by it for ever the first is true and therefore the latter But here it is saucily objected by Anonymus c. How stands this with the justice of God to punish temporal offences with eternal scourges It was the rule of his own law that paena non debet excedere culpam Deut. 25.3 How can he then inflict eternal damnation for a momentary and temporal transgression I answer 1. There is a double quantity considered in punishment the one according to the intention of pain the other according to the duration of time In respect of the former the quantity of punishment must be answerable to the quantity of sinne Revel 18.7 How much sin so much sorrow the more pestilent iniquity the more torturing fire For the other we must not think that the

of Lights and the God of all comfort present and present in an action of mercy and yet a horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham the father of the faithful When God talked personally and presentially with Moses Moses hid his face for saith that Text Exod. 13.6 He was afraid to look upon God When we look upon God in those terrible judgements which he hath executed upon some and see that there is nothing between us and the same judgements for we have sinned the same sins and God is still the same God what can we do but stand in awe of him that we sin not He urgeth that place in John 1.4.18 to prove this fear and sin but to little purpose for the wise man saith Prov. 1.7 Timorem domini esse initium sapientiae The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdome and therefore Jonah to the Ninivites Joh. 3.4 and John Baptist to the Jewes Mat. 3.10 and all the Prophets to sinners have used to provoke them to this fear by threatning the dangers that were imminent if they repented not But yet afterwards when men are reclaimed from their iniquities converted to God and have made some progress in his service then do they change every day more and more their fear into love until they arrive at last unto that state whereof S. John there speaketh which cannot be suddenly nor fully expected of any S. August hath a pretty expression to this purpose He saith That fear is the servant sent before to prepare place in our hearts for his Mistress's love who being once admitted into and possessed thereof fear departeth and gives place unto love But where this fear never entereth at all it is impossible that ever love should take up a habitation And albeit this fear of punishment be not in those that are come up to that degree of perfection of which the Apostle there speaks or is at leastwise less in them then in others yet being joyned with that reverence that becomes it it is most necessary and profitable for such Christians whose life is not so perfect nor love so great This appeareth by that of our Saviour Christ Luk. 12.5 Fear him who after he hath killed hath pomer to destroy both body and soul in hell Also S. Paul testifieth of himself 1 Cor. 9.27 That he kept under his body and brought it into subjection least that by any means when he had preached to others himself should be a cast away meaning thereby that notwithstanding all those favours which he had received from God yet he retained such a fear of God as that he was careful of those relapses which considered in their own nature deserved exclusion out of those heavenly habitations the glory whereof in a very great measure he hath had some ocular demonstration of Now my friend Anonymus if such a man as S. Paul did thus stand in awe of the justice of God notwithstanding his Apostle-ship and those rare endowments with which he was plentifully furnished for the execution and administration of the same a man so holy as he what ought we to be in whose consciences remaines the guilt of many thousand notorious impieties This know saith the same Apostle Ep. 5.5 That no Whoremonger or unclean person or covetous man which is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God And as though this had not been sufficient he adds Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience As if he should say Those that flatter you in your sinnes and boulster you up in your iniquities with this tush God is merciful and is easily won to pardon these or the like impieties notwithstanding a delightful continuance therein These men do but deceive you for the wrath and vengeance of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience for these very things The Author to the Hebrews tells us Horrendum esse incidere in manus Dei viventis That it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God The same Apostle rendring a reason Deus enim noster est ignis consumens for our God is a consuming fire They then that will not believe Gods justice nor are in any measure terrified with his threats against sin but presuming of his mercy do continue in their impiety shall suddenly be surprised and irrecoverably be confounded when Gods judgments do seize upon them I but saith Anonymus this causeth Melancholly and exceeding trouble of mind Truly if we consider the condition that we are in by nature we have very small cause to be jovial For 1. There is a captivity wherein we are violently detained under the slavery of sin and Satan S. Paul knew it and speaks of it Rom. 7.25 and in the sense thereof cryeth out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me I hope Anonymus will not be so fool-hardy as to say this trouble of the Apostle was a sinne who being sensible of it could not but be troubled with it Indeed there is no Turk so hurries his Gallie-slaves and puts them to so base services as sin doth her Captives Give me one that hath been in this Captivity and by the mercy of God is freed from it scit quod dico He knows what I say is certainly true 2. There a Prison too Ask David else who never was in any Goal what he means when he said Psal 88.8 I am so fast in prison that I knew not how to get out What else caused him to cry out so passionately Psal 142.7 O bring my Soul out of Prison And S. Mat. 4.16 saith of some to whom Christ preached here That they sat in darkness and in the shadow of death even as men in a Dungeon use to do 3. There are Chains too A sinner is tyed with the Chains of his own sins Prov. 5.22 With the bonds of iniquity Acts 8.23 And these are they for which David gives thanks to God Psal 116.16 That he had broken them in sunder A man need no other bonds if once he come to feel them The galls that sinne makes in the conscience are the entering of the Iron into his soul But perhaps these are not felt by some no not felt Take this then for a Rule If Christ heal them that be broken-hearted broken-hearted we must be ere he can heal us He is Medicus cordis the Physitian of the heart indeed but it is cordis contriti of the broken heart it is a condition ever annexed to make us the more capable and likewise a disposition it is to render us the more curable It is our fault and a great fault it is that we are more ready to laugh with the merry Philosopher then to weep with the mourner Mirth seldom knocks twice at our doors without entrance but sorrow shall not in so long as we our selves with all the miserable helps that we can muster up can

keep it out He that sees heaven lost Paradise vanished the Earth accursed Hell enriched the World corrupted all Man-kind defaced will have small cause to laugh Man fell by affectation of joy he must rise again by the affection of sorrow That part of the world that shall be cast into the bottomless lake spend the days in laughter that part which shall rejoyce for ever must be first drowned in tears For my own part I am none of those that desire to go merrily to hell I had rather have Gods Vinegar then Anonymus his Oyl Gods Wormwood then his Manna Gods Justice then his mercy Sorrow and mourning here then misery and torment for ever hereafter For a conscience troubled in it self is Odor quietis as Noahs sacrifice was a favour of rest with God I but saith he this opinion for he will not allow it any other term provoketh to despair I confess to despair of the mercy of God is a sinne of a very high nature but for ought I see not so frequent as is by some imagined I have read of whole sects whole bodies of Hereticks that denyed the communion of Gods grace to others The Cathari denyed that any man had it but themselves The Novatians denyed that any man could have it again having once lost it by some deadly sin committed after Baptism But I never read of any sect that denyed it to themselves no sect of despairing men We have some somewhere sprinkled one in the old Testament Cain and one in the New Testament Judas and one in the Ecclesiastical story Julian but no body no sect of despairing men Therefore he that abandons himself to this sin of desperation sins with the least reason of any for he prepares his sin above Gods mercy and he sinnes with the fewest examples of any for God hath diffused this light with an evidence to all that all sins excepting that sin which is not without a great deal of difficulty and some incertainty defined the sin against the Holy Ghost may be forgiven unto men yea unto all men without exception But we must take heed least in magnifying the mercy of God we decry his justice while we seek to keep some few poor souls from dashing themselves to pieces on the rock of despair we give not occasion to thousands to engulf themselves on the quick sands of presumption And so we cast out one Devil with another and the latter prove the greater Presumption is a sin to which we are naturally prone and therefore the more dangerous Soon is a man invited to make much of himself to approve and applaude his own endeavours to look big upon his own performances hardly won to his own affliction or brought about to his own disestimation Despair is a thing grievous to trembling nature Not often doth that Archer of Hell head his Arrows with such displeasing assaults Besides this hath often turned invito diabolo to a hearty contrition for sinne and a holy conversion from sinne like a violent Fever that hath boyl'd up all the choller and corruption of sin so that a man becomes the better after it But to presume is so sweet a sin to flesh and blood that it once foiled Innocence it self Satan hath not a more tryed shaft in all his quiver then to perswade men while they are sinning to bear themselves boldly upon the favour of God Therefore as the wise Man eats moderately of the dish which he best likes because he knows there is more danger of surfeit in that then in all the rest So it becometh us to be most shie and heedful of that sinne which we know will soonest take us and take God from us We may say of them both Despair and Presumption as the Israelitish woman did of Saul and David in their harmony after the slaughter of Goliah Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands so where despair hath hurried away some with a great deal of noise and clamour presumption hath engulfed more many more without any noise at all Together with this sin of despair in his Linsey woolsey discourse he links the performance of holy duties I know the Devil and his instruments are profest Enemies thereunto but after that way which they deny so will we worship the God of our Fathers The Tree is known by the fruits It is not well said but well done thou faithful servant that by the mercies of God in the merits of Jesus will gain acceptance and admittance Hath not God promised to reward every man according to his works Hath not Christ our Saviour confirmed us by the same promise and will this fellow make them lyers Doth not the Apostle enjoyn his Corinthians 1.9.24 So to run that they may obtain Did not Jacob wrestle with Christ the Angel of the Covenant for a blessing and prevail And how did he wrestle but by prayer and supplication As the Prophet excellently expresseth it Hos 12.3 4. What is this but with Diogenes to trample upon Platoes pride with more pride to condemn our presumption as he judges it with greater presumption For by his new Divinity or rather old fustian he presumes to cross even the Lord Jesus Christ himself who wills us Mat. 7.7 to ask that we may have And S. James 4.2 tels us the reason why we have not even because we ask not Methinks they should be ashamed to print and publish to the world that which is so apparently cross and contrary to the word of God thereby seeking to bring men into a cursed condition even to neglect contemn the performance of those duties which we are enjoyned for to do in the name of the Lord Jesus What will he what can he say to that of the Apostle Phil. 2.12 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling And that of the 1 Cor. 15.58 Be stedfast unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. Charge them that are rich in this world c. laying up for themselves a good foundation Rev. 22.12 Behold I come quickly saith Christ and my reward is with me to give to every one according to his works Therefore it is evident notwithstanding his negation that we may escape Hell and do our selves much good though not for yet by our good works Surely after we have prayed for hallowing Gods name the coming of his Kingdom c. We may pray not onely for daily bread but pardon of and power against sinne and not lose our labour We are commanded to hear Isai 55.3 that our souls may live For though God hath promised and Christ hath purchased all good things for believers yet we cannot not so soon at least expect them unless wee seek for them by those means which are appointed See what the Prophet saith to this purpose Ezek. 36.37 God hath an intention of good towards his people Yet saith he I will be enquired of by